Section 2: Research method and design

This section details our research design, including objectives and methodology, workshop structure, and ethics approval.

The purpose of the project was to:

• Contribute to a wider understanding around issues connected to the Online Safety Bill (OSB) and online harms more generally;

• Co-build a response to the OSB with partners from health and technology industries, government, charity organisations, service providers, and advocacy groups;

• Influence the development of future and subsequent legislation around online safety particularly as it relates to marginalised groups, including women and girls and at-risk men, and in consideration of mental health and neurodiversity.

To this end, we engaged in a series of workshops to collaborate with industry, policy, service providers and charity stakeholders to develop a response and recommendations regarding the OSB. The project employed a co-production methodology to bolster interdisciplinarity, strengthening the link between research and practice and offering a unique co-design approach. This approach was chosen because it empowers stakeholders as collaborators rather than subjects. Co-production thus involves using creative methods that foster the building of relationships between stakeholder groups that have different perspectives and needs. It treats all stakeholders as collaborators in shaping the project, offering multiple pathways to contribution and impact, and helping balance power in multi-stakeholder groups. Co-production also increases credibility for the research as fair, ethical, and transparent, due to the involvement of stakeholders and attention to their concerns.

The value of a co-production approach in this project is that it allowed contributors a way to share stakeholder experiences and expertise that enable us to better understand how the current OSB has taken shape and what steps can be taken to ensure future policy reflects a broader and more inclusive set of terms. Rather than conduct academic research in a vacuum, these workshops were designed to ensure that those actively affected by (or who represent those affected by) the OSB have their voices heard. Through these workshops, stakeholders had the opportunity to speak directly of their experiences of the OSB and wider issues, as well as make recommendations. All sections of this report have been shared with our participants ahead of publication, providing a vital member checking device and ensuring that their views are accurately represented.

Our intention was that the project would be multi-vocal and bring together a cross-section of different perspectives, allowing us to provide a holistic response to the OSB and highlight areas for future collaboration. A total of four stakeholder groups came together for this project over the period of 9th March to 30th April 2023. The groups were:

• The digital health ecosystem, drawing on the expertise of Southwest Grid for Learning (SWGfL), Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications (ORCHA), and BigHealth;

• Image-based and technologically-enabled abuse, with contributions from Bumble, Revenge Porn Helpline, and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust;

• Boys’ and men’s groups and health organisations, including Men’s Health Forum, MensCraft, Chilypep, and BAM Construction;

• Sectors addressing disabled people and those with mental health disorders particularly vulnerable to harm in online spaces, with Samaritans and Carnegie UK Trust.

At each workshop, stakeholders were guided through a series of discussion points that addressed the purposes of this project. Thus, although these were tailored to the issues that concern each of our stakeholder groups and we allowed discussions to be guided by the participants, each workshop also spoke to: the strengths, gaps and opportunities of current policy and regulation, and what concerns participants had about each of these areas; what the consequences of the OSB and other frameworks might be for the areas and people that they represent; and what future changes they would like to see happen to generate a more vibrant, equal, inclusive, and safe digital and technological society. We made a conscious decision to not record the workshops, but instead chose to note-take the discussions as they happened, with key quotes and insights member checked through the process of stakeholder peer-review as we drafted this report.

This project and its methods have been reviewed and approved through Coventry University’s formal research ethics procedure (ref: P147047). Participants received information sheets, signed consent forms, and were given the option to be anonymous. Stakeholders from all sectors worked collaboratively with the research team to produce this report, including the option to add, remove or correct content, enhancing value through continual partner engagement and strengthening existing networks across multiple sectors.